Air Force Colonel General, Three Time Hero of the Soviet
Union Ivan Kozhedub, letter signed, 12 June 1972.

Air Force Colonel General, Three Time Hero of the Soviet
Union Ivan Kozhedub, letter signed, 12 June 1972.

A rare historic document signed by the WWII Allied "Ace of
Aces".

Single page, single sided, 21 x 30 cm format. Kozhedub
boldly signed in ballpoint pen near the bottom as Chairman
of the Federation of Aeronautical Sports of the USSR. This
letter of achievement is addressed to M.I. Ryzhikh, the
Director of a Top Secret organization only designated as
Postal Box V-2775. Kozhedub congratulates Bugayskiy with his
and his organization's participation in the creation of the
Luna 16 automatic spacecraft which had performed the first
roundtrip flight to the Moon and delivered samples of lunar
material to Earth, and the Luna 17 spacecraft which had
landed "Lunakhod 1", the world's first moonrover.

The letter is in very good condition. Shows minor wrinkles
along the edges, the corners are slightly crumpled. There
are no tears or stains. This document will look great when
properly framed.

Ivan Kozhedub was one of only two Soviet fighter pilots to
be awarded the Gold Star of a Hero of the Soviet Union three
times during World War II (the other was Aleksandr
Pokryshkin, with 59 victories). Kept from the front lines
due to his great skill as a pilot instructor, Kozhedub did
not fly his first combat mission until March 26, 1943. On
April 19, 1945, he downed two Focke-Wulf Fw-190s to bring
his final tally to 62--the top Allied ace of the war.

Kozhedub is associated with a single fighter type, the
series of radial engine, wooden aircraft designed by Semyen
Lavochkin. The last of them, La-7 No. 27, survives at the
Monino Air Museum near Moscow. Incidentally, it was none
other than Lavochkin design bureau that decades later
created the Luna spacecraft referred to in the Kozhedub's
letter.

In 1949, he finished the Zhukovski Military Aviation
Academy. During the Korean Conflict, he commanded an Air
Regiment that was heavily engaged against U.S. fighter
aircraft. In 1956, he graduated from the High Command´s
Academy, after which he was promoted to General and served
as a senior member of the Air Force Staff, finishing his
career as Marshal and General Inspector of the Soviet Air
Forces.

Ivan Kozhedub passed away in August 1991 but remains a
popular icon of Soviet Military Aviation history. This
document is of course particularly interesting not only as
his autograph but also because of its connection to Soviet
space program.